The Terror Abode
by Jazzola
Summary: When the gang are evicted from their house without warning, it seems like nothing else can go wrong. But then the gang have to move into their new house- which is already occupied... Fraphne and Shelma.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This story is in Velma's perspective. Just so's you know... although you'd probably figure it out anyway. Please remember to review, it makes my day! Jazzola :)

The letter arrived early Saturday morning. We'd just had one of Shaggy's extra-large breakfasts, so we were busy cleaning up when the mailman rang the doorbell. Fred went to see who it was, since Daphne and I were battling the grease on a frying pan and Shaggy and Scooby were attempting to salvage a pot in which Shaggy had made "chilli con extra-carne, Shaggy style". I'm amazed the bottom wasn't burned right through.

Fred looked puzzled when he came back.

"Look who it's from. He hasn't sent us any mail since we moved in. I can't think anything's up."

It was a letter from our landlord, a man named Mr James. The letter was on very official-looking paper, and we were confused when we saw who it was from. Mr James wasn't chasing up rent or anything like that. He'd been pleased to take the famous Mystery Inc. on as tenants.

Fred opened it with the rest of us clustered round the table, and gasped as his eyes fixed on the first line. Then they narrowed, and he let the letter fall onto his leg, his eyes unfocused. Daphne and I exchanged glances, thinking what the letter might say. Several things sprang to mind for me, but they were all unlikely.

"Freddy…" I began tentatively, thinking what the letter might be about. He just shook his head and passed it over.

"I don't believe it."

I also looked at the first line and gave a little shriek. Shaggy and Scooby now looked worried, and Daph leaned over my shoulder and narrowed her eyes at it, a scowl blooming on her face as she reached down and hugged Fred over the back of the chair. I shook my head and passed the letter to Shaggy to have a look at, and his reaction was the same as the rest of us: disbelief and shock.

"No way, man."

The first line of the letter, printed there boldly in black and white, was, "NOTICE OF EVICTION".

"What have we done to deserve being evicted, Mr James?"

Fred was arguing on the phone with the landlord, and Shaggy and Scooby were busy packing the kitchen stuff, making sure that they didn't miss anything or leave anything behind. All our kitchen equipment, unsurprisingly, has to be bought from a specialist supplier- their normal clients are restaurants and such.

"We kept up with rent, we haven't done anything to the house- sorry? No, that's not true. You can come here yourself and find out if that's true. That's just a lie. No, and we did send it off! You've already got new tenants? Oh, for goodness' sake…"

He slammed the phone down and sighed, flopping against the wall and knocking the calendar off clumsily.

"Oh, brother…"

He crouched down to pick it up, but knocked his funny bone on the table as he did so. He shook his arm angrily, and allowed his hand to curl into a fist. Daphne walked over and picked the calendar up herself, then knelt down and murmured something to him. He smiled at her, but his hand was still a fist. She reached out and started smoothing her hand over his, waiting until his fingers were lying loosely in hers before getting up and pulling him up with her. Daphne and Fred have evolved tactics for when something's up with each other, and this was Daphne's tactic. I smiled at them and went into the kitchen.

"Like, did Freddy win?" Shaggy asked eagerly, looking up. I shook my head and watched their faces fall.

"Sorry, guys. Mr James's already got a new tenant. Freddy lost."

They sighed at each other and at me. I was feeling defeated as well- we had assumed we would be staying in the condo for at least a couple more years, and I had just finished painting my room in burnt orange and putting in a deep red carpet to make it more- well, "me". We'd spent hundreds of dollars on it and now we were being evicted without even two days' notice. I was pretty sour towards Mr James right now, and trying to think of a clause in some law that would stop Mr James in his tracks. I couldn't think of any.

"Carry on packing," Daphne sighed, sidling into the kitchen as the doorbell rang and Fred went to answer it. "I called my dad and we're going to take our stuff to Blake House when we move out. We can stay there until we find a new place to rent, Dad just got rid of the old Mercedes so we can put our stuff in the garage."

The _old _Mercedes? They only bought it two years ago. Ah well, that was the Blakes.

"That's great," I said, packing away a saucepan rack as Fred walked in. He picked up one of the boxes.

"What's happening, Freddy?" Daphne asked, looking at him with the box in his arms. We all stopped, waiting for an answer.

"Guys, we need to get our stuff packed now. The new tenant's waiting on the doorstep."


	2. Chapter 2

It took us two hours to get our stuff in the van. We were rushing around like headless chickens, dropping stuff, losing stuff, throwing boxes in with abandon and eventually calling Daphne's mother to help with the furniture. She sent round a removal van and a team.

The silence in the van as we travelled to Blake House was deafening. We had lost our house and all the work that had gone into renovating it. It had been a tip when we moved in, and Mr James hadn't been the most helpful landlord ever when we were doing it over. Twice he'd taken hours just to bring the keys for certain windows from his place down to us- amazing when he lives five minutes' walk away from the condo- and the second time Fred had blacked out on a ladder from breathing in the paint fumes due to the windows not being open. He could have broken his neck and all Mr James had to say was that he should've taken more care. It wasn't even like we could wait a day or so to do it because we were on a tight schedule.

"Maybe we'll find a better landlord," Daphne said quietly, breaking the silence. I nodded mutely, but Shaggy and Scooby just looked at her.

"And, like, who knows how long it'll take us to get our next house decorated and things? And, like, that's saying we'll find another house, man."

Daphne focused on the road. I turned and rolled my eyes at the guys, thinking, _How defeatist can the two chickens of Mystery Inc. be?_

"Come on, guys. Maybe we can rent a place from Mr Blake for a while."

We all turned to Daphne and looked at her. She shook her head sadly.

"Sorry, guys. He rented his last place out last week."

Fred's eyes wandered to the rear-view mirror, and he smiled at the looks on the guys' faces.

"C'mon, guys. Hopefully our reputation'll precede us. Who'd turn down Mystery Inc.?"

It was more moral-boosting than true, but I guessed we all needed a little bit of a boost after the news this morning. Everybody seemed down, even Fred, who was doing his best to make it seem more positive. I was relieved when we got to Blake House and Mrs Blake directed the removal people into the garage and enveloped her daughter in a hug.

"We've got a couple of rooms ready for you, Daphne dear. The boys will be sharing and you girls will be sharing. Is that OK?"

Her eyes strayed to Fred as she said it, and he shifted and looked distinctly uncomfortable. Daphne also looked over at him and smiled at him, then turned back to her mother.

"Mom! Freddy and I are together, but not _that _together."

Fred nodded quickly, trying to put Mrs Blake's mind at rest, and the woman sighed at her daughter and beckoned for us all to come indoors.

It took another five hours to unload everything and get everything we needed set up in the rooms we had been allocated by the Blakes. They were being very kind, but we were all conscious of the fact that we couldn't just stay at Blake House indefinitely. We needed to find our new place as soon as we could.

We took the van into town to the estate agent's to look for properties as soon as our stuff was inside, and eventually the girl serving us found a place we all liked the look of.

"It's about five miles away from the centre of Coolsville, with a decent garden and three bedrooms and a balcony at the back. It's being rented for a very, very low price, considering."

That seemed a little fishy- was there something being hidden by the agent?

"Why the low price?" I asked, suspicious now. The agent glanced round and lowered her voice so that only we could hear.

"Well, there have been three previous tenants, and they all came back within the week saying that there were ghosts on the plot, and they had scared them away."

Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other and grabbed Fred's arm together, knowing he would be the one sealing the deal and therefore the one who might take on the mystery.

"Like, c'mon, Freddy, the estate agent on the other side of town has some very good deals…"

Fred slid his arm out of their grasp and grabbed their arms instead, and then turned to me and Daphne.

"What do you think, guys? It seems pretty good to me, especially if we get a house out of it."

We agreed and the agent held the form out.

"Just sign here, Mr Jones."

In a second and a flash of the silver-barrelled pen, the deal was done and we had a new mystery on our hands.


	3. Chapter 3

The house looked completely normal from the outside. White-washed walls, painted white window frames and a dark blue front door, it actually looked charming at first. Shaggy and Scooby were too busy trembling in the back of the Mystery Machine to take in the house's good looks, but Daphne immediately gave it her seal of approval and I jokingly noted that the front door was the same colour as Fred's collar. He gave a little sigh and opened the door, but I glimpsed the smile on his face as it swung open to reveal the hall.

Everything seemed so normal. The lounge was painted in baby blue with a pine wood floor, the kitchen was various shades of burnt orange and terracotta, the bathroom was lavender with golden Celtic-style taps and accessories and the bedrooms were coconut white with pine floors. Not exactly the crème-de-la-crème of house decoration, but it looked chic and modern.

"Why would ghosts pick this place to haunt?" Daphne asked, running a little water on her finger from one of the gold Celtic taps. Fred shook his head, reaching out and sliding one of the shelves back into place from being slightly crooked.

"I don't know…"

His words were drowned out as a slow, dark moaning came from one of the drains.

"Uuuuurrrgh… rrrruuuuugh… nnngggghhh…"

Daphne shrieked and clutched Fred's arm, and he grabbed her back, both of them wide-eyed and staring around as though the creature that had made the noises would suddenly crop up out of nowhere. Shaggy and Scooby dived for safety in one of the cupboards in the kitchen and I froze on the spot, also whipping round.

"Leave… now… or you… will seal… your eternal… dooooooom…"

The voice gurgled, gave one more tortured, deathly moan and vanished.

Slowly, we started moving again. Fred pulled Daphne into his arms for protection and she snuggled against him, burying her head in his chest as she hesitantly reached out and touched the tap she had been running again. Nothing happened. Fred slowly turned it on. All that happened was that cold water gushed from the tap and the plug slid into the plug-hole. I smiled and walked over to the kitchen cupboard that was rattling and trembling as the two cowards inside it shook with gusto.

"The voice's gone, guys. You can come out now, it's safe."

One door opened and Shaggy peeked out, his hand still on the door in case we were lying, and then wriggled out with Scooby behind him. I smiled at Shaggy, suddenly noticing that he was actually quite cute when he was scared…

_Stop that thinking, Velma Dinkley! We have a mystery to solve! Besides, he probably doesn't fancy you…_

I sighed and suddenly froze as Shaggy put his arm round me shyly.

"Like, it really is gone, right, Velms?"

I nodded silently and he smiled.

"Like, thank goodness! Like, I wasn't scared, right, Scoob?"

"Roh rother…" Scooby sighed, standing up and resignedly scratching himself behind the ear. I looked round and caught Shaggy's eye, and was startled when he put his other arm round me and pulled me into a brief but slightly more than friendly hug. It wasn't like I was even scared- maybe it was for his comfort? Who knew?

"Thanks, Shaggy," I murmured as he drew back, giving him another shy smile. Fred waited until we had finished (much more tactfully than usual) before speaking.

"OK, so maybe we should split up and look around to see if we can find anything before we bring our stuff in from the Blakes'. Daph and I will check the upstairs, you guys can check the downstairs."

Wait a second. Was Fred _matchmaking_?

I turned round just in time to see Shaggy wink at Fred, and, out of the corner of my eye, glimpsed Fred winking back.

Had they set this up between them? I tried to catch Fred's eye, but he was already walking upstairs with Daphne, still holding her in a hug. He let go of her at the bottom of the stairs, and only smiled mysteriously when she whispered something to him.

OK, so I had a crush on Shaggy. A little teensy weensy crush. But were things this bad between us that Fred had to be the matchmaker? Or was this Shaggy or Daphne's idea?

Bemused and unsure, but wanting something to happen with me and Shaggy deep inside, I set off into the kitchen with the guys.

A/N: Woo! That was my first attempt at Shelma romance. How'd it go? I've got lots of experience with Fraphne, but this is the first time ever for the other pair… Please review and tell me how it went! Jazzola


	4. Chapter 4

We found nothing. There were no clues in the kitchen at all. Nor in the lounge or the little downstairs bathroom that we found lurking under the stairs and hadn't noticed before. We were clueless in every sense of the word.

I was only half-looking for clues anyway. Why had the guys been winking at each other after Shaggy hugged me and Fred suggested we split up together? I mean, that could only be matchmaking. It couldn't just be random winking, they never winked at each other. Winking was reserved for Fred and Daphne and Shaggy and Scooby. It was puzzling me like no mystery ever had. I didn't think Fred went in for that stuff, even if it was to help me and Shaggy, and surely Shaggy would just say if he liked me? Even though he was such a coward in these mysteries that we solved together, he wasn't shy when it came to his feelings. I remembered him walking straight up to a girl in senior school and asking her out, just saying, "I like you. Will you go out with me?" She hadn't accepted, but he had just said, "Like, OK, see ya around," and the next day it had been forgotten, even though they sat next to each other in Spanish class. He had acted like it had never happened. I had been relieved at the time, even though I didn't really know why.

Maybe I had had this crush on Shaggy for longer than I thought.

Fred and Daphne came downstairs with something in Fred's hand, and he held it up to the light to get a proper look at it. It turned out to be a scrap of paper from the "Properties" section of the Ohio Gazette.

"That's not even a clue, man," Shaggy said, unimpressed. Fred smiled and turned it over.

"Well, that is."

I looked and smiled as well. There was a fingerprint on the other side, and a scribbled sentence: "Ghostly noises in drains, use filters".

"Like, OK, maybe it is a clue," Shaggy grinned, and we laughed. Daphne took it and stored it in her purse.

Fred looked round to Shaggy as she did, and raised one eyebrow. Shaggy raised his as well and Fred looked pleased, then turned back to Daphne as she began speaking.

"Well, maybe we should call my parents and get them to bring our stuff over now? It's six p.m. and I don't know about you guys, but I could do with some dinner, I didn't have a very big breakfast. Or maybe we could go to a restaurant?"

"It'd be better if we went to a restaurant and let the removal guys bring our stuff in, we wouldn't get in the way," Fred said quickly. Shaggy nudged him and nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Like, that's cool with me and Scoob, right, buddy?"

"Reah, rure," Scooby said, nodding. I waited for Daphne to give them her usual lecture for whenever we go out, about not taking too much so that we get a huge bill, but it never came. Was she in on the plan too? It looked like it. She never forgot the lecture unless there was a very good reason.

We got in the van and Daphne called her parents going along.

"Like, me and Scoob'll have an extra-extra-extra-extra-large pizza each, with every topping you've got except spinach," Shaggy told the waitress, licking his lips in happy anticipation. She nodded and noted it down, then took the rest of the orders (which were much more modest) and walked off, promising that the food wouldn't be long. Shaggy smiled and suddenly turned to me.

"Like, you look really nice tonight, Velms."

I was caught off guard at that. Daphne had put a little mascara and eye shimmer on me in the van, insisting I had to look my best in the upmarket restaurant she chose, and I didn't think it made that much of a difference but admitted that it made my eyes very big and noticeably prettier behind my glasses. I smiled back at him quickly, trying to hide my surprise, but from the slight curve of his lips as he answered I didn't think I'd managed to hide it from him.

"Um, thanks, Shaggy."

I would normally have ducked away from him after that, but for some reason this time I didn't. Instead I held his gaze, both of us smiling, until Scooby barked at the arrival of the pizzas and Shaggy broke away (reluctantly? It seemed so) and took his food. I smiled inwardly as he picked up his cutlery and started munching; nothing can stand between a Shaggy and his food, it seems.

The rest of us got our food a minute later, and I glanced over at Fred and Daphne on the other side of the table. Daphne had taken Fred's fork out of his hand and had speared a little bit of his smoked salmon on it, laughing as she waved it in front of his face and his eyes followed it, teasing him with it until he grabbed her hand and got his teeth round it. She laughed and put her arm round him, and I was suddenly hit with a strong desire to be like that with Shaggy, to be that close.

But would it ever happen?

Shaggy finished his pizza in double-quick time even for him, and turned to me as I picked the last morsel out of my teeth, trying to avoid being the food-stuck-between-teeth girl.

"Like, Velms, urm… Like, do you, like, want to, like…"

"Spit it out, Rogers," I laughed, watching as he fought to get the words out but my heart beating so hard I wondered if he would hear it.

"OK, like… erm… Do you want to go for a walk in the car park with me?"

I blushed, shock filling me. He wanted to… But surely that meant something was going to happen between us…

"Um, yeah, sure," I whispered quickly, realising that he needed a reply. He smiled and stood up, holding out a hand politely as I stood as well and taking my hand in his. I turned and got a glimpse of the triumphant smiles on the faces of both Fred and Daphne as we walked out together.

We walked in silence for a minute, walking round and round the little gardens at the side of the car park, Shaggy's hand still holding mine. I loved the feel of his smooth palm on mine.

After a couple more minutes of not uncomfortable silence but silence in which nothing was happening, Shaggy turned to me, his eyes glowing in the dim light from the windows of the restaurant.

"Velms… Can I ask you something?"

A/N: Ooh, cliffhanger for those Shelma fans! And for other people as well, I suppose. I'll have more on ASAHP! Jazzola


	5. Chapter 5

"Velma, can I ask you something?"

My knees went weak. I know it's a cliché, but it happened. They went all jelly-like and I could barely stand. Shaggy put his hands on my arms, maybe noticing my legs going shaky, but maybe he would have anyway.

"Velma… um… erm… like… can I kiss you?"

Wow. What an initiation for a first kiss! Just asking "can I kiss you?" Logical, I suppose, but still, I guess I always thought it would be really sweet and romantic.

But then I never thought before that it would be Shaggy…

He leaned in, soft and gentle, his eyes half-closed and his face so sweet and romantic and full of love and tenderness. It was happening- it was really happening- my heart was beating so hard I thought I would have a nosebleed-

And then he gasped suddenly as a car came into the car park.

"Zoinks! My parents!"

I started laughing at that. It just seemed so classic- Shaggy's parents coming along just as he's about to kiss me. I couldn't stop laughing as Shaggy pulled me behind a hedge and out of sight of his parents.

"Like, man… Trust them…"

I laughed harder at that, and he laughed with me, although his laugh was a little shell-shocked at what had just happened.

"Like, OK… Like, where were we?"

I could tell he was nervous from that. Two "like"s in just six words- as he would say, zoinks!

"Are you going to kiss me or not?" I murmured, reaching out and putting my arm round his waist. He smiled at me, his eyes going back to how they were before, tender and loving and focused only on me…

Our lips touched, sweet and gentle, his lips dry but warm on mine and his hand round my waist, gently smoothing itself over my skin, and although my eyes were closed I could almost see the look of sweetness and happiness on his face that I had seen before but never would have guessed would be there because of me…

We only broke apart when we were gasping for breath and unable to stay any longer. Shaggy's eyes were shining inches away from mine, their bright shade of hazel that I knew so well, and I smiled widely, probably looking like a dork, as he pulled me into a hug.

"Like, I- I love you, Velms."

I smiled at him, at the guy I knew so well and had been praying in secret liked me in the same way I liked him, and snuggled into his skinny arms. Thinking on it, maybe Fred was better for hugging with his broad, strong arms, but in that moment I didn't care.

I closed my eyes for a minute and we stood entwined, still and silent and breathing in time with each other, breathing in the faint smell of my perfume (Daphne had talked me into that as well) and the slightly stronger smell of pizza from him. I sighed quietly and he started giggling nervously, sounding more like his teenage sister Sugey than himself.

"Like, that was better than I thought it would be."

Then a question sprang to mind.

"Shag?"

"Like, yeah?"

"Did you set this up with the others?"

He grinned, squeezing me a little as he replied.

"Like, it was Daph's idea. She guessed that you liked me and I told her that I liked you but I didn't know if I could tell you. She told Fred and he, like, came up with a plan, as usual. The restaurant was, like, part of his plan. Only it was going to be just, like, a gang outing, only with us being evicted it, like, worked out better than he thought it would."

"One of Freddy's plans worked for once! Amazing!"

Shaggy laughed with me and carried on.

"Like, you remember how you and I helped get Daph and Freddy together because she wasn't sure how to do it and he was too shy? Well, like, you weren't sure how to do it, I guess, and I was too shy. So we just went on the same sort of thing and hoped it would work and, like, it did! You're not, like, offended or anything, are you?"

I shook my head firmly, and had to slide a hand away from Shaggy to rectify my glasses slipping.

"No. I'm glad that you guys did this. I wanted to but, like you said, I didn't know how to do it!"

"Like, zoinks! I found something Velma didn't know how to do!"

I laughed with him as the doors of the restaurant opened and Fred and Daphne quietly sidled out, hand in hand and grinning at each other. They stood outside the van for a moment and had a quick kiss before getting in, giving me and Shaggy a little more time and getting something out of the time as well.

"Like, that was Freddy's best plan ever," Shaggy murmured happily as we got into the van. Fred didn't hear him.

I leaned over and whispered in Shaggy's ear as the old van throbbed into life.

"I totally agree, Shag."

He grinned and we sat hand in hand for the journey back to the haunted house which had become one of the best mysteries I'd ever been on.


	6. Chapter 6

The house seemed as usual as ever when we went in, returning from the restaurant that was now (in my book, at least) the best ever restaurant in Ohio.

Our beds had been placed in the bedrooms, and we all laughed when we saw that Mrs Blake, who had been directing it all as a favour to Daphne, had deliberately put Fred's bed in the little third room and Daphne's in with mine in one of the larger rooms. We were too tired to take in much. We all needed to crash.

We fell back into our usual zombie-just-before-bed routine. Clothes off, walk to the bathroom wrapped in a towel, get in the shower, get out again, brush teeth, go to bed. It helped that the controls of the shower were exactly the same as they had been in our old place, although there was no helpful handle on the shower door in this place so I almost slipped on the puddle Shaggy had left. For the first time ever since moving in with the gang, I didn't care. I just smiled down at my reflection in it, and then gasped as I saw that the mascara Daphne had put on me had run all down my face in the shower. She never warned me that would happen!

Feeling hideous, I had to go back to the bedroom with my head down and ask Daphne to get it off. She laughed a little at it, but her general kindness overtook in the end and she got her make-up wipes out and cleaned it away.

Shaggy and Scooby were out completely, but Fred across the hall was sleeping lightly and Daphne was only dozing. I guess that when you're sleeping in a house that was vacated multiple times because of ghosts, you don't sleep quite as easy as you would otherwise.

The lights were on dim in the two bedrooms, but suddenly they began dimming more. Daphne sat bolt upright, and Fred opened his eyes and pushed back the covers, looking up at the light bulb and narrowing his eyes against the glare, but his eyes widening slowly as the bulb dimmed without any prompting. He looked over and Daphne immediately scurried over to him, hugely scared and in need of her big strong man to protect her.

Ever since we were little kids, things like this have freaked Daphne almost as much as the ghosts and ghouls and monsters we meet on our mysteries. It's because of a sleepover one time at my place…

My parents wished us goodnight and asked if we wanted the lights out. Daphne started squeaking that she was scared of the dark as they said it and so they left the lights on to help her, and we all agreed anyway that it would be more fun if we had the lights on for a while longer anyway. We did all the usual- popcorn throwing, pillow fights, messing around and watching a film on my little TV. Fred chose the film and said that we needed to toughen up as soon as he put it in. It was a film his brother had lent him, and it was an 18 but we weren't really scared of it- at least three of us weren't. It's obvious which two were!

We were halfway through the film when suddenly the lights went off. That in itself wasn't scary. It was just that in the film, the bad guy had been just about to turn the lights off and leave the good guy in a room in the dark with a deadly tarantula that made Daphne scream every time it came on the screen. She was cuddled up to Fred, pushing herself against him so hard had it not been for the armrest he would've been pushed off the side of the sofa. And, talk of coincidences, a mere second or two after the lights went off, a huge, hairy house spider crawled straight over Daphne's foot, which was bare and lying on the floor. She started screaming, really loud, and Fred was comforting her and trying to find out what had happened at the same time, and then the lights came on again and there on the floor was the spider, facing Daphne and about to crawl up the side of the sofa. Daphne shrieked the house down, and Fred had to squash it with his slipper to get her to come down off the top of the bookshelf.

That's why this was freaking Daphne out as badly as it was. Bad memories… I cursed that power cut and the film after. Fred tried to take responsibility for it all, since it was his film, but we agreed that had he not brought that film we would have probably put one of the other 18s we had sneakily stored away on and that would have been just as bad, and even if it hadn't been on that scene Daphne would still have been beyond freaked. Besides, he was the one who volunteered to squish the spider and help Daphne that way, even though it was so big if it had crawled onto his face it would have covered it. He had to throw his slipper away afterwards as well.

The lights carried on going weird, but now they were going on and off, dimmer and then brighter and then suddenly off and then on again, randomly circling round bright and dim and on and off, and poor Daphne was close to a panic attack. Fred whispered calmingly to her, trying to get her to chill, but it wasn't working; she was really scared, making little whimpering sounds and clutching Fred hard.

"Leave… Leave… Or you will be doomed…"

Daphne screamed. She bolted out of the door, despite Fred's yell for her to come back, and started running down the stairs at full tilt, her feet pounding despite her lack of weight.

BANG!

"Daphne!" Fred yelled again, rushing out of his room and hurtling down the stairs as she did.

She was nowhere in sight. Danger-Prone Daphne had done it again.

A/N: Cliffhanger again! Lovely to write and hateful to read… XD Keep reading and, if you haven't already, please review! Jazzola


	7. Chapter 7

Despite our pitiful lack of sleep, both Fred and I were instantly awake. Shaggy and Scooby were slightly less alert, but they were both trying to be helpful, especially Shaggy. I got the feeling that he was trying to impress me, and I giggled when he lay down and checked under the fridge despite the risk of spiders without comment. He never does that sort of thing normally, unless a Scooby Snack or a sandwich went astray under there. He gave me a slightly wounded look and I stifled my laughter.

There was nothing there, it turned out. Not even a spider.

Fred decided to split us up again, but "in view of recent events" he said he'd take Scooby and Shaggy and I would be split up together. He winked at Shaggy again, and I smiled to myself as Shaggy winked back, trying to hold in laughter. Fred was too concerned for Daphne to laugh, but he smiled. Scooby gave his "Ruh-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" that was so familiar.

Shaggy shyly reached out and held my hand as soon as we were out of eyesight of the other pair. I smiled at him, the memory of the kiss at the restaurant still fresh in my mind, and promptly tripped on a mat.

"Agh!"

Shaggy laughed quietly as he helped me up from my sprawled position on the floor, his grin almost glowing in the faint light from the bulb in the kitchen. The lights had returned to normal as soon as Daphne had disappeared, but we had been too busy being concerned with Daphne to really notice, Fred especially.

"Like, you're gonna fill in the space of "danger-prone person of the gang" now, are you, Velms?"

I laughed with him, giving him a little shove as I stood up. He mock-staggered back, pretending to have been wounded, and fell into a shelf- which moved down and turned, opening up a section in the opposite wall. I clutched his arm as it made its way down and the light bulb just inside ignited and showed the top two rungs of a ladder.

"Like, we go down it, right?" Shaggy asked with resignation in his voice, looking down at the ladder and shuddering. I nodded grimly and stepped inside, grabbing his arm and directing him down as well.

The ladder didn't go down too far; it was only about the size of a normal household ladder, maybe one story of a house or so. Shaggy was trembling, as usual, but without the addition of Scooby he was shuddering even worse than usual. He looked as though he was standing on top of the epicentre of an earthquake. **(The epicentre of an earthquake is the spot where it's the most powerful, in case you don't know. If you did, good for you! Jazzola ****) **I grabbed his arm and we started walking forwards, a trembling chicken and a determined young sleuth, trying to get some answers for this mystery.

We turned a corner- and I walked straight into someone else, a broad-chested person wearing a dark blue shirt.

"Freddy? What're you guys doing down here?"

Scooby had run straight to Shaggy, who was now stroking his dog's brown back. Fred gently dug me out of his chest and wiped my glasses on his ascot, since they had steamed up a little due to my embarrassment at walking straight into Fred. Ever since the kiss I had been somewhat less than completely alert.

"We found a passageway in the third bedroom, behind the orange panel. And your glasses really hurt!"

"Sorry…"

I checked they weren't bent as Fred rubbed his hand over the point of impact, trying to stop it hurting. I gave him a sheepish smile and he shook his head at me in mock exasperation, then turned towards the guys, who were huddling together still.

"Guys, we're not done yet. We need to find Daphne and get some answers, yeah? But Daphne takes priority."

"Like, I wonder why," Shaggy said cheekily.

"The same reason you were kissing Velma earlier," Fred snapped back. "I haven't got time for you right now, Shag."

Shaggy looked away, his cheeks going bright red. I glared at Fred.

"What was that for, Fred Herman Jones?"

He winced at the sound of his middle name and avoided my gaze, running his hand over his forehead wearily.

"I- I'm sorry, Shag, I'm just worn out and worried, OK? I didn't mean that. Can we just go back to searching?"

Well. That was more than a decent apology from Fred. Normally he just sticks with a "sorry" rather than giving a reason for whatever he did. One of the things that he finds a challenge is apologising, not because he's excessively proud or anything, just because he hates himself when he has to admit he's wrong. When he was younger, his brother overshadowed him quite a bit until Fred's grades started climbing above his brother's and Fred proved he was the smarter one in the pair. The aftermath of that brief contest was that Fred developed a phobia of admitting when he was wrong and apologising, because apologising was confirming he was wrong and that went against what he had been trying to do. It happens to a lot of kids, but that doesn't make it any better.

"Like, thanks and OK, Freddy," Shaggy said, and Fred gave him the barest minimum of a smile before turning away to look around the tunnel.

After about another five metres, the two tunnels led to a room. We went in, Fred swinging a torch around to give us some light. The room was pretty much empty, except for a couple of cardboard boxes stacked against the wall furthest from us. I went over, curious, and looked in them- then backed away quickly, shocked at what I had seen.

"Guys…"

"What?" Fred asked, seeing my wide eyes and looking alarmed himself.

"Guess what's in those boxes."

The guys shook their heads, now looking frightened.

"Petrol. And fire-lighters."

Fred gasped.

"They're gonna… They're gonna set the house on fire!"

A/N: Cliffhanger! Remember to review, I love reviews as much as I love chocolate (and that is saying something! XD). Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Jazzola


	8. Chapter 8

We raced back to the house, but it was too late.

The tunnel we followed back had changed for some reason, so that we came out in the garden, about a hundred metres from the house. It was a very long, narrow garden, and we were right at the bottom of it. I had expected it to be a little cold, but it was eerily warm.

Fire makes warmth.

Even as I thought that a flame began licking at the side of the house, and suddenly there was a _bang_ and the kitchen burst into flames.

From one of the top windows, someone screamed.

"Guys! Help me! HELP! I'M GOING TO BE BURNT ALIVE!"

Strangely, and slightly inappropriately for the situation, the first thought that came into my head was "Daphne Blake, ever the drama queen". The second was, "Oh my goodness, she's right!"

"Daph," Fred gasped, and before we could stop him he was running towards the house. I shrieked for him to come back, and Shaggy tried to grab his arm, but he ignored my pleas and slipped his arm through Shaggy's to get free and carried on towards the burning house. Daphne was too busy sobbing and yelling into the night to notice.

I could see Fred's silhouette passing the window on the stairs as he ran past, and his head was bowed against something, which only heightened my anxiety. He had asthma, always had done, and I was worried that any smoke in the house might trigger an asthma attack. Then again, if he breathed in too much smoke he would die. My heart was in my mouth as he grabbed Daphne at the upstairs window and whispered to her, trying to get her to calm down. She grabbed his arms, panicking and gasping but visibly relaxing at the feel of his presence. I couldn't make out what Fred was saying but it seemed to be working.

He turned away from the window, taking her with him. There was no escape through the window; it was a sheer drop from there onto the concrete slabs of the patio below. They had no choice but to go through the house.

Flames were beginning to engulf the place now, throwing themselves out of windows that had been smashed by the fires in the rooms and destroying everything in their path. I hoped with all my heart that that wouldn't include my two friends…

And then they burst out the back door, Fred carrying Daphne and staggering, but that wasn't due to her weight, that was due to him coughing and gasping for breath. People on the street had seen what had happened and the ambulance crew that someone had called suddenly appeared round the back of the house. The police followed them, coming over to talk to me and Shaggy and Scooby about what had happened while the ambulance guys took Fred and Daphne. We gave the police the information they needed, but we were anxious to find out if the guys were OK and so they let us go quickly.

The guys in the ambulance simply said that Daphne had some minor burns to her left leg and Fred had inhaled enough smoke for it to be dangerous, and they were taking both to hospital but were more concerned for Fred. They also added that given what Daphne had told them, had it not been for Fred she would have been burnt alive, like she'd thought.

The police investigation started as soon as the fire was extinguished and the house was deemed safe. They told us at the hospital that the smoke alarm had been very quietly and sneakily disabled, and Daphne had been returned to her room just as the fire had been set at the foot of the stairs. The people who had started the fire had intended to kill Daphne- and if it hadn't been for Fred's rash but day-saving actions they would have succeeded.

We were let through into the ward after a couple of hours of waiting. Daphne's leg was bandaged up to her torso, but she assured us that they were minor burns and that they would heal quickly and wouldn't leave any lasting marks. She would just have to lay off the tights and wear fairly loose-fitting trousers for a while.

Fred seemed OK in the bed next to hers (Daphne had demanded it so she could keep an eye on him). He had oxygen and stuff and was just a little tired. I told him what the police had said about him saving Daphne's life and he just smiled, saying that she was worth it. Daphne would have kissed him, only he had an oxygen mask over his mouth so she couldn't, so she held his hand up and kissed it instead. The rest of us left when he fell asleep, but we didn't exactly know where to go.

The keys to the Mystery Machine were on Fred's bedside table, so we took them, deciding to sleep in the van. The police took us back to the house and gave us a couple of blankets and pillows we could use, then left to pay a visit to the Blakes and the Joneses to tell them about the fire and the injuries to their respective children. The over-protective Mrs Jones and Mrs Blake probably freaked out completely.

My last thought before I drifted off to sleep was that if someone was desperate enough to try and kill Daphne and nearly kill her and Fred in the process, there must be something pretty big going on in that charred shell of a house that we had rented.

A/N: There you go, for everyone who was holding their breath on the last cliffhanger! Sorry it was so cruel… I will keep writing! Jazzola PS: I know that in my stories Fred has ended up injured quite a lot, but I don't have a death wish for him or anything like that, that's just the way the plots turn out… :P


	9. Chapter 9

Fred and Daphne were discharged two days after the fire. In that time Shaggy and I had tried to get the police to let us into the house so we could have a look around for any kind of clue, but they had refused, saying that the house had deteriorated and it was no longer safe for us to go in. The saddest thing about the house after the fire was the sight of the proud, navy blue front door, charred and blackened and half-destroyed, hanging off its hinges in the crooked, incinerated archway. It had been so charming and quietly imposing before, standing solidly in the white-washed wall, but now it was a burnt ruin of how it was before. The timbers of the house showed through like bones in a half-rotted corpse. It felt impossible that that was the house we had rented only a day or so ago, that we had slept in, however briefly, and that we had taken on because of a mystery.

Maybe this mystery-solving business was more dangerous than I thought it was…

We agreed to all meet up outside the house as soon as Fred and Daphne could get away, since the doctors wanted to give them another once-over before they left just in case. Both of them wanted to get on with the mystery, but they had to comply with the doctors.

Shaggy and I waited in a comfortable silence with Scooby at our feet, lying in the grass because he complained that his paws were getting too sore. Shaggy and I were looking at the house, each thinking our respective thoughts; mine were directed towards the mystery and the motives, I suspect Shaggy's were more along the lines of "Like, how lucky were we to all get out of that alive?!"

After half an hour of daydreaming and thinking and looking, a taxi drew up and Fred and Daphne got out, Daphne limping slightly and Fred coughing every so often, a harsh cough that I associated with his asthma. Despite their injuries, they seemed to be in good spirits, and Daphne paused for a second to kiss Fred as they stood on the kerb together.

"Guys! How're you? Like, are you OK? Like, we don't have to go back in there, do we?"

Shaggy went forwards to put his arm round Daphne and give Fred a playful punch on the shoulder. Fred smiled at Daphne as if to say "typical!" and Daphne giggled and pinched Shaggy's skinny arm. He smiled at her, clearly happy that they were OK but also wanting reassurance that he wasn't going to have to go into the house against his choice.

"Sorry, Shag. We're going back in, I'm afraid," Daphne said firmly, sliding Shaggy's arm off her shoulders so that she could walk towards the police officer in charge of the investigation, which was comprised of several different charges now- attempted murder against Daphne and assault to her and Fred and of course arson.

"Like, why, man? Like, won't the police be doing that stuff, like, the investigation and stuff? Like, man, Daph, please!"

"Sha-ggy," I murmured in a sing-song tone of voice in his ear, waving a Scooby Snack in front of his nose. He started sniffing and drooling, licking his lips in happy anticipation of the little brown nugget-like snack. I held it teasingly just out of reach as Daphne started talking to the police officer, tossing her hair back and looking at him with a serious expression. Fred was next to her, also looking at the officer. It surprised me that he wasn't the one doing the talking, but I guessed they had probably made some kind of plan at the hospital in case we weren't allowed in immediately.

After a while of pleading and persuasion, with Fred joining in after a while, the officer nodded curtly at them and Fred waved over to us, signalling that we had the permission of the police to go beyond the yellow and black cordon around the shell of the burnt-out house.

The first place we looked was the ground around where the foot of the stairs had been, the place the fire had been started. We had barely been looking for five seconds before Scooby barked and started nuzzling something on the ground, half-covered by a shard of charred pine wood.

I stooped down and gently extricated it from the flooring, brushing a little ash off it and trying to get a decent look at it. Fred leaned over and wiped a little soot off the top of it, and the words "OHIO STATE DRIVER'S LICENCE" showed up beyond his finger.

"A driver's licence… So this'll tell us who did this, unless it belongs to one of us."

Fred felt in his pocket and drew his out, bringing into view the little brown leather licence cover Daphne had got him for Christmas the year he had passed his licence. Daphne drew hers out of her purse and Shaggy rummaged in his pocket as well, eventually finding his in the depth of his brown trousers. I was in the process of earning my licence, which was why I had been watching Fred driving recently when we had been in the Mystery Machine together. At first he had been a little confused, but after I'd explained (red-faced) he had just laughed and let me watch.

"So whose is this, then?" I whispered, wiping away the muck on the photo to try and see the face.

An eye… Half a mouth… An ear… A cheek… Half a forehead…

I sighed and held it up to the light, disappointment coursing through me.

Just our luck.

The photo was half-destroyed.

A/N: Please gimme those reviews, people! I love 'em! They're brilliant! Please please please please with the biggest, juiciest cherry ever on top? I'm making the effort to write and upload this stuff; you can at least tell me what you think of it. Please again? Thank you! Jazzola


	10. Chapter 10

"At least we know their hair colour and eye colour and skin colour…"

Fred brushed a dog hair off the photo and held it up to the light in the van again as we stared at it. More than half the face was gone, so it was completely indistinguishable. The only thing was that everyone thought they had seen the face before somewhere and we were trying to place it, but with no success so far.

"Like, someone on the TV?" Shaggy murmured to himself, staring hard at the half-face and still unable to remember the owner of it. I sighed.

"They must be involved in this mystery somewhere. Somewhere…"

I gently took it from Fred as realisation and a memory suddenly dawned on me.

"Velma?" Fred asked, too surprised to even lower his arm. Daphne reached out and gently lowered it for him.

"I've got it!"

"Who?" the rest of the gang chorused, staring at me intently, waiting for my theory.

"OK, guys. I'll tell you my theory while we're going along. But we're heading to Forrester's, in the centre of Ohio."

Fred slipped the van into gear and I started explaining as the Mystery Machine trundled off the Blake's driveway and towards our chosen destination.

* * *

"Just as I suspected."

We were standing outside Forrester's, on the street. Inside sat a young woman with thick, cropped dark hair, just like in the photo, and dark brown eyes, again, like in the photo. Her pale skin, identical to the skin in the photo, was shown off by a black dress and an agate necklace which blended perfectly with the rest of her outfit. Daphne would have been proud of such co-ordination, only she rarely wore black, claiming that it didn't go as well with her hair as purple.

The estate agent who had told us to rent the place was the arsonist.

Fred sighed, turning away from the window briefly to cough, then turning back and narrowing his eyes at the woman. Daphne huddled closer to him as it suddenly started to rain.

"How about we head for a café?" he asked.

Shaggy and Scooby readily agreed, but I hung back.

"Um, Freddy, what about getting her?" I asked, jerking my thumb backwards towards the window of the estate agent's. He smiled at me.

"Velms, we have to make the plan, remember? So we need a little time, and with this rain we could do with some shelter while we make the plan. Besides, Shaggy and Scooby need some kind of reward for being so good," he joked, grinning as Shaggy gave him a mock punch on the shoulder.

"Like, huh, Freddy! Like, we agree with the café part, but you could be a little more, like, nice to us!"

Fred just laughed and we walked towards our favourite place in town to eat and the place most accustomed to the chewsome twosome- the good ol' Malt Shop.

* * *

Over a malted milk each and a burger each for Shaggy and Scooby, we made the plan.

Shaggy and Scooby would go into the estate agent's undercover and try and get some information about the estate agent and her involvement in the plot, while Fred would sneak in and steal her phone so we could have a look at it and find out if there was any solid proof that she was involved. Once Shaggy and Scooby were done, we would either get the police in or just question her ourselves.

With the plan finalised, all we had to do was head to the costume shop for some disguises for the guys.

With two wigs for Shaggy and Scooby and overcoats for both and just a jacket and a slight change of hairstyle under a hat for Fred, we were ready to set it off.

Shaggy and Scooby walked in a while before Fred, so as not to arouse suspicion, but they did get a few looks- I'm not sure everyone in the agent's entirely bought the story that Scooby was human. Fred (who I will say looked very good in the guise Daphne had bought him, which may have been the reason why he looked so good) walked in a couple of minutes later and pretended to be looking at the particulars, but in reality was sneaking closer and closer to the estate agent's handbag, which was slung causally over the back of her chair.

As Shaggy and Scooby ran out of sane questions to ask and started asking increasingly daft questions, such as "Like, which high school did you go to?" and "Like, how many cents are there in a dollar?", Fred snuck the phone out of the woman's handbag and walked causally out of the shop, nodding to Shaggy and Scooby on the pretence of knowing them from around, which was the signal to say "I've got it, let's get out of here!" and for them to leave. A very relieved Shaggy and Scooby were promptly shown the door by the rather ruffled and slightly annoyed estate agent, and we made our way away from the shop before turning the phone on and having a look through the texts.

There it was, one of the more recent texts on the phone:

SET LITE 2 FOOT OF STAIRS. GIRL IN BDROOM. FINGAS CROSSD. X

We looked at each other, each thinking hard, even (I suspect, I may be wrong) Shaggy and Scooby. Was the X a kiss or an initial? Who was the text from? The phone wasn't showing the sender, for some reason.

With our latest clue in Daphne's bag (it was a diamante inlaid phone and it would look a little odd for one of the others or me to carry it), we made our way back to Blake House, where we were staying again after the calamity of our latest house.

A/N: I am very sorry to everyone who read the story before and became confused- my silly computer (who goes by the name of Snail) uploaded a chapter twice and I didn't notice until it was too late… However, this was rectified as soon as I was told about it. Thank you Swamp Fairy for your message! I'd just like to thank gluegirl56 as well for her reviews, which were very welcome. Please review if you haven't, I love getting them so much! Jazzola


	11. Chapter 11

"I should be able to get the number of the phone from this, and then maybe the police can contact the phone company and find out who that particular handset belongs to."

I clicked various buttons on the computer as I travelled through the finding process for the number. We have a lot of advanced software like that and it comes in handy for some of our more technological mysteries. Things like tracking texts, numbers and calls can be the clinchers in cases, so we like having them around.

After a lot of trawling, eventually the results came up. Fred narrowed his eyes at the number as it came up.

"I've seen that somewhere before, I'm sure of it!"

I was having the same feeling, but I didn't say so, since Fred was concentrating and I thought it best to let him think- if it got us the owner of the phone and the number and therefore the sender of the text and our second villain, it was worth a few seconds of silence.

Fred snapped his fingers abruptly and rushed out of the room just as Daphne walked in, looking slightly confused.

"What was that about, Velms?"

"He might have the name of the text-sender," I said quietly, flicking the phone up and down idly. I waited for five minutes, but Fred didn't return, so instead I went back to the information we had on the estate agent.

Her name was Magda Lincoln, and she was twenty-eight years old and from Massachusetts. She had moved to Ohio after she was left her parents' house there in their will. Looking through the info the police had given us, I could find no real reason for her to be after us- clean police record, nothing in her life that might turn her to crime. We were stumped as to Magda's motive.

Daphne started making up random hypotheses, thinking of why Magda would get involved in this.

"Is it motivated by Magda's parents' deaths?"

"Is she friends with one of the guys we caught and sent down?"

"Are we targeted or was it just the house?"

They were all very good questions, but unfortunately they were just that- questions with no answers. And what we needed now were the answers.

Shaggy and Scooby left to get a pizza from the long-suffering Ohio pizza house and the rest of us passed on their offer of some food from the extra-extra-extra-extra large pizza boxes they brought back. We thought some more about Magda and found her online blog, but it was more of a private chat channel with a friend in Massachusetts she had left behind when she'd moved and there were no recent posts. There was nothing else about her or her parents online, and we didn't want to go into town for fear of the mysterious accomplice to Magda's plan (or maybe the master and she was the accomplice?) to see us out and about. We hadn't yet established that we were the targets of the crime, but for all we knew we could be.

Shaggy had long since finished up the pizzas but I still recoiled slightly from the strong smell of various toppings on him as he walked up and put his arm round me. I liked the arm part, but the smell was so pungent I sniffed and started coughing. I'm used to smells like the mild smell of my body spray or Daph's perfume or Fred's aftershave. Shaggy apologised and walked out briefly, coming back smelling of the aftershave. I giggled and pointed out that it was Fred's aftershave, and Shaggy didn't shave so he didn't really have an excuse for using it.

"What're you going to say to Freddy?" Daphne asked, smiling as she recognised the smell. Shaggy laughed.

"Like, I'm hoping he won't notice!"

The rest of us burst out laughing, and he smiled and murmured something in my ear that only I caught.

"Like, anything for my Velmsie…"

I smiled and let him kiss me gently on the cheek, pondering about whether I liked Velmsie more than Velms or Velma and deciding that if it came from Shaggy, then yes, I did. We were onto the pet names stage of our relationship now- I made a mental note to ask Daphne when she got to that with Fred. Her pet name for him was "Freddy my love", his for her was simply "Daph darling", both of which seemed sweet enough. They were always accompanied by the smiles they always saved for each other.

Things were beginning to become sterile and I was wondering where the heck Fred had gone when he arrived back in the room, panting slightly and leaning against the doorframe as he held something out.

"I ran to the storage place where your parents sent our stuff-" Mrs Blake had had to hire a storage area for our stuff since they had forgotten that they had agreed a friend could keep their Mercedes limo in the garage from the day we had the fire- "- and I found it! The person whose number that text was from! He was in our phone book."

He held the little metal phone book out and we crowded round as I flicked to the page Fred had hastily bookmarked.

There were several entries for it, since J was a common enough letter for a surname to begin with and Fred's surname began with J as well. I had to check each entry against the number we had found after hours of searching and tracking on the computer and, on the third page, we found the scrawled entry, on the page in very scrappy writing that I recognised as Shaggy's.

_Mr Xavier James, landlord_.

I gasped, looking round at the others.

"Our… our… our previous _landlord_?"

From the looks on their faces, I could tell that they were all as confused as me.


	12. Chapter 12

Now that we had two names, the hunt was on. We were looking for any previous contact between Xavier James and Magda Lincoln.

Of course, being a complete computer brainiac (and modest with it) I quickly found my way into Magda's saved hotmail chat with Xavier. Apparently they had been in contact a couple of months before Magda moved to Ohio.

They seemed to be talking in some kind of code- saying things like "the H goes this S", which didn't make any sense to anybody. Interestingly, the next post after that was "If you've got it, get to Ohio". I guessed that knowing what "it" was would solve a few puzzles. The post after that was "it's under the P", and we puzzled for a while longer over that post. It just didn't make sense yet.

Eventually, I went onto the internet and looked up important events and newspaper reports from the month Magda had moved to Ohio.

There it was, in black and white. Well, the background was more cream on that particular screen, but that was no matter.

"BANK ROBBED IN MASSACHUSETTS, NO TRACE OF THIEF".

Interested, I went through to have a look. The details given were that a bank in Massachusetts had been robbed by an unknown robber who was believed to be a dark-haired female, from what little they had seen on CCTV.

"Hmm… Like a certain Magda Lincoln, I wonder…" I murmured, printing the article and catching it neatly as the printer spewed out the page. Shaggy had a read-through as well as I went back to the hotmail chat.

""The H goes this S"… Maybe "the heist goes this Saturday"? The bank was robbed on a Saturday, just after getting a big delivery of cash. And then Xavier would be saying that if she'd got the money she should make her getaway to Ohio. "It's under the P"… Ooh!"

I swivelled back to the computer and went onto the map of Ohio, magnifying the plot our burnt-out house had been built on and then zooming out to check the area around it.

"Just as I thought! Look! Magda Lincoln's house is a block away from our plot, and maybe "P" means plot! So Magda is saying it's under the plot… It's buried under the house! That's why she was trying to vacate the house! But then why did she let it to us in the first place? Why even suggest it?"

"She'll answer that," Daphne replied, getting her jacket from the peg and putting her arm round Fred's waist, smiling slightly as she did so. "Come on, we're bringing her in."

Fred smiled back at her and reached over to get his own jacket. Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other.

"And, like, how do we do that?"

"With a bit of luck, now that the plot has been deemed safe, she'll be there. She might try the ghostly effects on us again, but I doubt it. We know her game now, and by now she'll know we're onto her after the theft of her phone, which I severely doubt has gone unnoticed. If she does, you guys remember, it's only an estate agent who wants her money back after hiding it under the house."

"Like, remember, this is the estate agent who set fire to the house and tried to kill Daph! I'd, like, almost be happier if it was the usual ghost- this one is serious!"

"If things get too out of hand I can always grab her," Fred offered, disguising a cough as clearing his throat. Daphne sighed at him, very much not fooled, and put her arms round him, holding him close. Shaggy did the same to me and Scooby, feeling left out, snuggled between Fred and Daphne, since they were the nearest couple. Fred laughed and stroked Scooby's head as he spoke.

"We can do the usual- use some bait and set a trap. Only this time it's not a ghost, it's just an estate agent looking for her cash."

Daphne nodded.

"You're right. Time for your second plan of the mystery, Freddy Jones."

Fred sat down on the swivel chair I'd just vacated, turning it round to face the inside of the room as he put his hand up to his chin as a sign of thought.. Shaggy and Scooby perched on the desks as Daphne and I pulled up the chairs at the side of the room. We stayed silent, giving Fred time to think, until he took his hand away from his chin and started talking.

"OK. Here's what we'll do…"

A/N: Lovely little cliffhanger there! Remember to review, I'm making the effort here, doing all this writing- and don't tell anyone but I should be revising for my GCSE RE mock exam right now, and I'm taking time off to write for you guys. So come on! The little button is begging you, and so am I! Review! Jazzola


	13. Chapter 13

We were all assembled outside the burnt shell of a house the next day, waiting for the right moment. Our best guess was that Magda would come to claim the cash today and not risk the police swarming around the place finding it. The game would be up and even if Magda wasn't caught, she would still lose her money.

We went via the shop in the centre of Ohio which had received our order the night before and had promised to have the stuff we needed ready for today. It was a fairly large order, but the police had told us that we would be reimbursed should we catch Magda and perhaps Xavier red-handed. If we didn't, the cost came down to us, and it wasn't too cheap- at least a hundred dollars. But the plan was a good one and (we hoped) bound to succeed.

Everything was in action, from the order waiting to be picked up to the video camera ready and waiting in the Mystery Machine.

We set off too early for Shaggy and Scooby, who were snoring in the back of the van when the rest of us were busy bringing in the stuff we had bought, with the result that they were buried under grey sacks stuffed full to bursting with our purchases. Gasping, confused and definitely annoyed, they surfaced from the piles to see the rest of us killing ourselves with laughter. Daphne had to cling to Fred to keep herself upright, she was laughing so hard. They looked like two brown, bemused seals in a sea of grey sack. I was kind enough to yank a couple of sacks out so they could slip into the front of the van and to safety, and was rewarded with a kiss from Shaggy, which was definitely worth the effort.

We were all set when out of the corner of my eye I saw our targets walking up- we were hidden behind one of the scorched walls that was still standing. Xavier carried an armful of empty sacks, Magda carried nothing but herself, and both were in sleek dark clothing.

Magda bent and lifted away a slab of concrete from where the patio had been, scraping away some earth on a certain spot and looking below it. Her smile broadened and she pulled out a wad of something that was dull and yet shiny in places, holding it up to the light.

"We've found it, Xavier."

Her voice was full of triumph, and he smiled as well, crouching next to her and starting to yank out handfuls of the stuff himself and shove them into the sacks he carried.

"Are you getting this, Freddy?" I murmured to him, and he nodded, zooming in a little and crouching further on the ground, making sure the camera picked up every last detail. Daphne was recording on her phone as well, making doubly sure we caught the action. Shaggy looked at his watch and nodded to me.

"OK?" I whispered to him, just as Daphne's phone beeped, saying that it could take no more video. She flipped the phone down and nodded to me, and I put both fingers in my mouth and gave my speciality whistle- the loudest out of everyone, a real ear-splitter and actually painful to do.

Magda and Xavier swerved round almost comically quickly, Xavier dropping his sack in surprise. Magda was the first to recover, sprinting towards us. We dropped everything, including the video camera, and started running. Magda was too focused on us to consider doing anything to the video camera.

"Get back here, you!" Xavier yelled as he sprinted after us, yelling louder than I'd ever heard him yell, a real landlord-style yell. I grinned as we skirted round the loose boards and Magda didn't notice, slipping and falling onto them with a shriek and giving Xavier no warning as he plummeted into the pit as well…

"The trap worked!"

"Hey, what's with the surprise?" Fred asked, wounded. I smiled at him and turned to Xavier and Magda.

"Caught red-handed, I'm afraid. The police are just coming now. Why don't you have a look at the money you got, Mr James, Miss Lincoln?"

They looked down at the wads of bank notes and either roared with outrage (Mr James) or gasped in shock and horror (Miss Lincoln).

The bank notes were expert fakes, very believable in the faint light of the early morning and specifically dated to look as though they had been in the earth for a while. They cost us a little bit, but it was well worth it and it told me that my hunch was correct and the concrete slab was the place where Magda had buried the money. I had thought it might be, since every other slab was perfectly in place and that one was loose.

A police car screeched up and the officers inside got out and came over to us, the two occupants shivering slightly in the cold. I made a mental note that police officers don't always wear very suitable clothing and giggled at the thought as the officers took Magda and Xavier away after Phase Two of the plan worked- getting them out. It was too simple to go wrong really, just a rope, a little metal platform and a pulley, but Fred's plans do have the habit of going wrong, even the simplest things. They got out OK, anyway.

And you could tell by the looks on their faces that they knew they had a lot of explaining to do.

A/N: Sorry I was a little late updating, real life stood in the way of it… ah well. It's up now. Please review, kind readers! Jazzola


	14. Chapter 14

It was another mystery over and done. We had caught the bad guys and they were awaiting sentence in police custody. Magda Lincoln would likely go down for a long time; Xavier would go down for a moderate amount of time. Neither would ever be free to live in Ohio again. Magda was told she would have to leave Ohio and return to Massachusetts for her jail sentence, and Xavier was told he would be going across the border to West Virginia.

But Mystery Inc. were still left with one problem… we were homeless.

The Blakes were still able to take us, but Daphne was beginning to regress into her teenage strops, only helped by poor Fred playing the diplomat and invariably getting a scream or shout directed his way for his pains. The rest of us were just getting fed up with the ceaseless arguing and yelling and noise coming from Daphne and her parents and we needed our own place- and soon.

The estate agent's Magda had worked in was still willing to take us on as customers, and in fact the agents there were very complimentary and helpful. One of the agents suggested a random house somewhere in Ohio that only had the specs we were looking for. Sure, it was a wild card, but we were willing to have a look.

We were up early the next morning, ready to travel. The estate agents had given us a postcode which was eerily familiar, and we all wondered if maybe it was a house we had looked at before when we had started renting our old place. It wasn't far from where we used to live.

The sat nav, as usual, was playing up, but with no real directions we only had that, and when it said we were in Alaska even Fred gave up on it. Daphne called the agent's while Shaggy and Scooby enjoyed the unexpected lunch break at the malt shop as we figured out where the place was.

Eventually, after ten minutes on the phone and thirty-six dollars' worth of food from the malt shop, we were there.

None of us could stop laughing when we realised what the house was.

It was the place our old landlord had evicted us from!

The agent called us after a couple of minutes as we just took it in and laughed over and over again.

"You had a look round yet? Do you like the property?"

Daphne laughed and I imagined the agent looking confused on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, we've had a good look around before. I think we'll take it, don't you, gang?"

We all started laughing again, and when Daphne explained to the puzzled agent on the phone she started laughing as well.

What a result. Two guys in prison, a years-old bank robbery mystery solved, one house burnt down (unfortunately) and our old house back…

"Like, what were the chances of that?" Shaggy chuckled, putting his arm round me. I smiled up at him and saw Fred and Daphne doing the same out of the corner of my eye. Scooby looked lonely again for a second, but then I pulled him into my hug and yanked Fred and Daphne across as well, making it a gang hug, the kind we always did in high school. I felt it was a good enough occasion to have another one…

Scooby, slightly squashed in the centre of us all and licking random faces, looked round at us and smiled.

"Rooby-rooby-roo!"

THE END

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the story! Review if you haven't, they are always very welcome. Thanks to Swamp Fairy, Angel1008 and the very nicely named "Jazzola numero uno fan" (I'm flattered, whoever you are!) for your reviews and your asking to see more, you guys really helped. I'm going all sentimental… XD Thanks for reading, and again, please review! Hope you enjoyed it! Jazzola


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